“Listen, I need this deal to work out. They have something of mine, and I need it back. What would you be agreeable to?”
Billy looked momentarily befuddled and smothered a belch with the back of his hand. “I said I’d make a trip once every three weeks, same as always. I bring in cured meats for the palace and bring back salts for the shop. There’ll be no special deliveries, if it’s good enough for the palace, it's good enough for the likes of them.”
He had a point. And if Billy only made the trip every three weeks, they were poles apart on a settlement. Unless there was a third party who was making a trip to the city regularly—
“Billy, how thick is a rolled hide?” Gretchen narrowed her eyes.
He frowned and held his hands up in an approximation. “Why?”
Gretchen undid the laces of her infinity pouch and held its mouth as far as it would stretch. When Billy screwed up his face, she thrust her arm in up to her shoulder and waggled her eyebrows.
“Well, I’ll be.” Billy rubbed his chin. “Full of tricks, your sort. Shame it would be too narrow.”
Gretchen chewed her lip and sagged. “What if you sliced the hides in half?”
“Don't ask me,” he shrugged. “It’s them who are the fussy buggers.”
Gretchen spun on her heel and cast around for the pair. They’d since moved on, and she muttered a curse under her breath. The crowds had thickened around the baker’s section. She was running out of time.
Elbowing past people who were dawdling, she pushed in the opposite direction toward the livestock and combed the aisles before spotting Ewan’s scalp. She groaned and trotted toward them, ignoring Ewan’s curled lip when he saw her.
“I have,” she gulped a mouthful of air, “a plan. There’s no chance old Billy will make a delivery once a week. But I travel to the city most days.”
Cal rolled his finger in the air impatiently.
“Now, given I’m on a broomstick, there will have to be a compromise. I can’t carry a full skin in my pouch, but if we slice ‘em in half, I can bring as many as you’d like.” She unstrung her pouch, and Cal’s eyes boggled as she gave the same demonstration she’d shown Billy.
“Is that from Elod’s Emporium? How does one such as—”
“Don’t believe a word of it!” Ewan interjected. “She’s not to be trusted. And cutting the hides will only make for more wastage, which eats into our profits.”
Cal waved his brother to silence. “They will do well enough for straps and scabbards. The ones from the butcher can serve for the larger items.”
“Do we have a deal, then? Billy comes by every three weeks, and I’ll come past for the other two.” Gretchen held up a finger. “Only for this season, mind. When a new contract comes around, we can negotiate a fee.”
Cal pressed his lips together and drew a deep breath, his eyes holding hers. Finally, he gave a tight nod and patted his brother on the shoulder. “Ready a contract. Then give her what she wants.”
Chapter 6
Drawing up the contract was tedious with Ewan left to the particulars, and Gretchen sprinted back to the carriage with her de-hair potion as the crowd milled around the vegetable displays. She flew past Nora who gave her an impatient frown and dived in the carriage's side to her hairy produce. The growth was out of control, and she had to hack away at the mess of curls to be sure the pumpkin was still underneath it.
Uncorking the bottle with her teeth, she sprinkled it over the top and rubbed the elixir into the orange flesh. “C’mon,” She spat the cork out and pulled at the hair. “Out you come.”
It started at the tips, golden locks turning brown and shriveling, and crept up toward the roots where they broke away from the skin. Gretchen wiped the mess away, her nose twitching at the dust, and marveled at the clean surface left behind. No sign of unnatural follicles or spots. With a victorious whoop, she pushed aside the curtain and grinned at Rapunzel who had come to take a look.
“What have you done?” she craned her neck to get a better look. “You were gone for ages.”
“Just a de-hair potion I whipped up.” Gretchen shined her fingernails on her shirt. “Cost a year’s worth of hauling around sacks of skin, but I’ll wager this thing is bigger than Mildred’s.”
Rapunzel’s eyes widened, and Gretchen spun to follow her gaze. The pumpkin shuddered, its flesh rippling.
“Is it supposed to do that?”
Gretchen’s mind raced. The pumpkin had two dousing’s of magic in one day. One to counter another. It wasn’t out of the realms of probability that it could cause some instability. She glared at the vegetable, daring it to try again, and it sat inanimate, like nothing had happened.
“A side effect is all,” Gretchen coughed. “Now, we need to get this baby to the contest. I don’t know where Jurgen’s gotten to, but I can’t carry it out myself.”
Rapunzel eyed the pumpkin askance but shrugged, waving Gretchen away so she could get hold of it. As she hefted it toward the line of contestants, Gretchen ripped her curtain free of the carriage doorway and trotted ahead to lay it out on the grass. When Rapunzel lowered it to the ground Gretchen fancied she’d heard a rumble, but pushed worry from her mind and stood proudly in line.
“What took you so long?” Farmer McBride nodded up the line where Nora already had her measuring tape out and was sizing up Mildred’s entry.
“Had to see a gal about a cat.” Gretchen shrugged and held a hand to her belly which churned with nerves.
It didn’t take long for Nora
